(KDVR/NEXSTAR) — It should come as no surprise that Las Vegas — aka “Sin City” — has once again nabbed the top spot on WalletHub’s latest “Most Sinful Cities in America” list. But which of the nation’s other cities are full of folks who more often indulge in their bad behavior or embrace their many vices?
The devil is in their little details, it seems.
To compile the 2024 list, WalletHub’s analysts studied statistics from 182 of the country’s most populated cities, delving into data from the FBI, the IRS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Federal Trade Commission, the National Council on Problem Gambling and even Tinder (among other sources) to find out which of America’s metro areas are more likely to be hotbeds of sin.
The analysts also divvied up the metrics into seven key categories: “anger and hatred,” “jealousy,” “excesses and vices,” “greed,” “lust,” “vanity” and “laziness.”
A city’s ranking in the “anger and hatred” category, for example, was based on violent crimes, hate crimes and sex offenses per capita, in part. “Greed” was based on casinos per capita (along with the share of the city’s adults with gambling disorders) and the amount of charitable donations reported in relation to income. The “lust” scores, meanwhile, were determined via the number of adult entertainment businesses or Google searches for pornography, among other factors.
“Sometimes, these activities are always bad, like violent crimes or identity theft. In other cases, they may be relatively harmless in moderation but incredibly destructive when not kept under control, such as alcohol use or gambling,” said Chip Lupo, a WalletHub analyst. “The most sinful cities are those where illicit activities and vices alike are the most widespread.”
Las Vegas, perhaps not surprisingly, ended up at the top of the list thanks in part to its many casinos and adult entertainment venues, but it also ranked high in reports of identity theft. The city’s “vanity” scores were also high, fueled by Google searches for plastic surgery.
Houston and Los Angeles were ranked as the second- and third-most “sinful cities,” with the former having the highest score in the “lust” category and the latter taking the top “vanity” ranking.
The 10 cities that earned the highest overall scores on WalletHub’s list can be found below, followed by the cities that earned the least “sinful” scores.
The 10 most “sinful” cities
- Las Vegas, Nevada
- Houston, Texas
- Los Angeles, California
- Atlanta, Georgia
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Denver, Colorado
- Phoenix, Arizona
- Miami, Florida
- Dallas, Texas
- St. Louis, Missouri
The 10 least “sinful” cities:
- Columbia, Maryland
- Freemont, California
- Port St. Lucie, Florida
- Pearl City, Hawaii
- Madison, Wisconsin
- Cape Coral, Florida
- West Valley, Utah
- Bridgeport, Connecticut
- South Burlington, Vermont
- Fort Wayne, Indiana
More information, as well as a complete ranking of all 182 cities studied, can be found at WalletHub’s website.
